PANAJI
The Sahitya Akademi’s Yuva and Bal Puraskar winners for 2024 were announced on Saturday, with two Goan writers, Adwait Chandrakant Salgaonkar and Harsha Sadguru Shetye, receiving these prestigious awards. Adwait Salgaonkar, from Pernem, won the Yuva Sahitya Puraskar in Konkani for his debut essay collection “Pednyacha Samaaram,” published in September 2023.
Harsha Shetye, known for her contribution to children’s literature, has many awards to her credit. Expressing joy for getting the ‘Bal Sahitya Puraskar’ from Sahitya Akademi and dedicating it to her readers, Harsha said, “The story in my book, ‘Ek Aashille Bayul’ is my own story. It’s about the life I lived as a child, half a century ago. The memories kept churning in my head for 15 years, before it took the form of this book. As the content was already ready in my brain, it took me less than six months to pen it down.”
Harsha choses to write informative literature for children and her book on the Konkani names for birds in Goa has been published by Goa’s Forest Department. She has also written a book on wild flowers in Goa.
